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While you were sleeping: Worst review in World Cup history?

4 Jun, 2019 7:03am

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Upsets galore in the Cricket world cup with Pakistan beating England and Bangladesh beating South Africa, The Central Pulse win the ANZ Premiership and we catch up with the NZ Men's Netball team ahead of their match against the Silver Ferns. Footage / SKY Sport

Day five of the Cricket World Cup is in the books and we have yet another upset. Here's everything you need to know from the overnight action.

12th time lucky

Pakistan ended a run of 11 straight losses in one-day internationals by beating top-ranked England by 14 runs in a thriller at Trent Bridge today.

Set 349 to win, England got centuries from Joe Root (107) and Jos Buttler (103) but couldn't complete what would have been a record run chase at a World Cup and finished on 334-9.

After making its second-lowest World Cup total of 105 in a shambolic opening loss to West Indies, Pakistan made its second-highest score in tournament history of 348-8 against England, the host nation and favourite.

Du Plessis promises 'harsh words'

'Nincompoops', 'clods', 'dolts'. There a few options of harsh words that South African skipper Faf Du Plessis could throw around when addressing his troops following a second straight defeat at the World Cup.

"It was not good enough," admitted Du Plessis after his side's loss to Bangladesh yesterday for an 0-2 start to the tournament.

"If guys think they can make excuses for performances like that then they will be challenged - that's a fact."

"My style of captaincy has always been that there's a line and if you don't perform to that line there will be a lot of harsh words," said Du Plessis.

Sounds like a fun environment to be in right now.

Aggressive approach pays dividends

They acknowledged that they'd received some rather favourable conditions, but the Black Caps bowlers have opened the Cricket World Cup with a terrific tactical template.

In routing Sri Lanka for 136 in their 10-wicket thumping in Cardiff, the bowling unit produced an assertive display, striking early and maintaining the pressure to never let Sri Lanka off the hook.

Kicked off by a wicket with the second ball of the game from Matt Henry, Kane Williamson backed up his bowlers with aggressive captaincy on a green seaming surface. Whether it was adding extra close-in fielders, bringing back strike bowlers for additional stints, or extending their spells, the message was clear – the Black Caps wanted to try and make the most of high-leverage situations.

"We knew that we had to put the foot down," explained Henry, who took 3-29.

"Especially when we did take wickets, we kept coming hard at them and shut them down as quick as we could."